rst of scornful laughter.

Three months passed and the day was come on which, in accordance with
the expressed wish of the deceased, his will was to be opened at K----,
where it had been deposited. In the chambers there was, besides the
officers of the court, the Baron, and V----, a young man of noble
appearance, whom V---- had brought with him, and who was taken to be
V----'s clerk, since he had a parchment deed sticking out from the
breast of his buttoned-up coat. Him the Baron treated as he did nearly
all the rest, with scornful contempt; and he demanded with noisy
impetuosity that they should make haste and get done with all their
tiresome needless ceremonies as quickly as possible and without over
many words and scribblings. He couldn't for the life of him make out
why any will should be wanted at all with respect to the inheritance,
and especially in the case of entailed property; and no matter what
provisions were made in the will, it would depend entirely upon his
decision as to whether they should be observed or not. After casting a
hasty and surly glance at the handwriting and the seal, the Baron
acknowledged them to be those of his dead father. Upon the clerk of the
court preparing to read the will aloud, the young Baron, throwing his
right arm carelessly over the back of his chair and leaning his left on
the table, whilst he drummed with his fingers on its green cover, sat
staring with an air of indifference out of the window. After a short
preamble the deceased Freiherr Hubert von R---- declared that he had
never possessed the estate-tail as its lawful owner, but that he had
only managed it in the name of the deceased Freiherr Wolfgang von
R----'s only son, called Roderick after his grandfather; and he it was
to whom, according to the rights of family priority, the estate had
fallen on his father's death. Amongst Hubert's papers would be found an
exact account of all revenues and expenditure, as well as of existing
movable property, &c. The will went on to relate that Wolfgang von
R---- had, during his travels, made the acquaintance of Mdlle. Julia de
St. Val in Geneva, and had fallen so deeply in love with her that he
resolved never to leave her side again. She was very poor; and her
family, although noble and of good repute, did not, however, rank
amongst the most illustrious, for which reason Wolfgang dared not
expect to receive the consent of old Roderick to a union with her, for
the old Freiherr's aim